India’s momentum disturbed

Australia’s Scott Boland (4th from right) celebrates with teammates after dismissing India’s Virat Kohli in Adelaide on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

Sometimes, it's best to have matches played without too much of a break between them. The ICC mandates a minimum of three days between a Test match and if two Test matches are played back to back then there has to be a break of seven days before the next Test match as can be seen between the third Test at Brisbane and the fourth at Melbourne. It is not very clear why there was such a long gap of 10 days between the first Test in Perth and the second in Adelaide. What it has done is that it has given the Australian team a lot of time to assess where they went wrong in a Test match they were expected to breeze through but instead lost by almost 300 runs. The momentum that the India team had at that time has been disturbed and they will have to once again tap into their inner strength like they did at Perth to come out on top in the second Test match.

Also Read: Agony in Adelaide

Advantage Australia

This is being written on the morning before the second day's play starts with Australia in a much more comfortable position than they were at the end of the first day's play in the Perth Test. With the pink ball doing a bit more than the red ball did in the first game, the bowling was mainly in the hands of the quick bowlers and so we had the situation where when India were dismissed on the stroke of the tea break, the Australian bowlers had bowled 44.1 overs. That is a rate of 11 overs an hour when the ICC expects a minimum of 15 overs an hour. There are monetary penalties as well as deduction of points from the table to qualify for the World Test Championship final. Remember the Australians missed out on the first WTC final because they were penalised points for bowling overs short of the required number in a series and so New Zealand qualified in their place and went on to win the Trophy.

There are allowances made by the ICC for over rates. For every wicket that falls there is an allowance of two minutes and there is an allowance of four minutes for a drinks interval. There are other allowances too like moving of sightscreen, injury, change of ball etc. So when the over-rate is calculated this is taken into account to see if the bowling team has bowled the required number of overs in the day. The Australians will therefore get an allowance of 20 minutes for taking all 10 Indian wickets and another eight minutes for the two drinks interval.

Every minute counts

There may be some more allowance given for the time that Nitish Kumar Reddy was attended to by the Indian team doctor after he was hit in the helmet grille by a Mitchell Starc bouncer. So maybe altogether 33 minutes or so which adds to nine overs calculated at four minutes an over. That means they would have bowled 54 overs but are still six overs short of what they should have bowled in a little over four hours. If there are any other allowances for stoppage of play, am not aware of that. The Indians were a little better with their over rate bowling 33 overs in the two and half hours that they got and they too will have to watch out and bowl their overs quicker if they don't want to lose points from the WTC table.

Ben Stokes, the England skipper, did query the penalty points for his team as well as New Zealand despite winning the Test match with 10 hours of play
left.

When the champion West Indies team of the 70s and 80s were winning in three and four days they also asked why their over rates were being questioned when the games were finishing well before the fifth day's play.

There is a fine balance between giving spectators full value for their money by bowling the minimum overs required in the day and the cricket they get to see
but if there's non-stop action like England provided in that first Test and the West Indies used to do in their pomp, do the rules need to be strictly
observed?

Also Read: Did Rohit Sharma's toss call in Adelaide set India up for disaster?

Bonus points solution

One solution could be giving bonus points for teams scoring at more than four runs an over for that is providing entertainment to the spectators and viewers. Additional bonus points could be given for teams scoring at an even faster rate than four runs an over. England have been playing some breathtaking cricket and that's bringing in the crowds to watch them play.

When I was the Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee, there used to be a meeting with the captains of all the national cricket teams where the skippers would not only bring to the table some of the concerns about cricket in their country but also contribute greatly to how the game could move forward. Today the international schedule is a pretty tight one but if the Chairman Jay Shah can restart the practice of a meeting of all the Test captains a lot of the current heartburn would reduce considerably. No skipper will want to do anything that goes against the game but giving them a chance to put forth their views to the ICC will make for a greater understanding of their issues and make them feel that they are also being heard.

In fact the first meeting could be held just a couple of days before the WTC final in June next year and could set the tone for the next cycle of the WTC.

Professional Management Group